


culture shock

by Engineer104



Series: Fluff(?)cember Power Hour (or Month) [4]
Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Culture Shock, Fluff, Gen, Post-Blue Lions Route (Fire Emblem: Three Houses), Post-Canon, Sort of? - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-07
Updated: 2020-12-07
Packaged: 2021-03-09 23:54:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 540
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27814891
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Engineer104/pseuds/Engineer104
Summary: Derdriu is not Claude's hometown, and in the end Ingrid isn't even surprised.For Fluffcember Day 7: "A Journey"
Relationships: Ingrid Brandl Galatea/Claude von Riegan
Series: Fluff(?)cember Power Hour (or Month) [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2035183
Comments: 5
Kudos: 21





	culture shock

**Author's Note:**

> Ingrid's probably got a repressed crush in this but tbh can still be read as platonic, if that is your preference

Ingrid was beginning to feel foolish, something she became more familiar with the longer she dealt with Claude.

“You should visit my home,” he suggested almost idly once while in Fhirdiad. On paper he’d come to finalize details of the Kingdom absorbing the former Alliance territories, but she suspected something else afoot. 

Because Claude’s motives and words always had more layers than Felix wore in winter. 

“I have,” Ingrid reminded him. 

Claude quirked an eyebrow. “You have?”

“Sure,” she said. “I’ve been to Derdriu. It’s...beautiful.” The streets had been too narrow and winding for fighting, but the harbor and canals were a glittering, crystalline blue and the architecture bore an elegance that Faerghus’ austere castles lacked. 

He laughed then, and Ingrid’s cheeks burned with the awful impression he laughed at her. “Oh, Derdriu isn’t _exactly_ my home,” he told her, “and also it’s definitely worth visiting without battle as an excuse.”

She crossed her arms, a little annoyed...and a lot confused. “Then where am I supposed to visit?” she demanded. “I can’t agree to your invitation if you don’t tell me where I’m going.”

And then he did, and Ingrid felt foolish. 

Almyra’s capital - named something her tongue shaped so clumsily she avoided saying it aloud - was even more beautiful than Derdriu. It was a sprawling mess of crowded buildings, the sun baking clay roofs, with delicate spires rising amid perfect domes of more colors than Ignatz carried paint. 

She felt out of place then, wandering the shaded outdoor market with Claude, an old classmate turned dubious enemy turned ally turned prince turned...friend?

“Why is it so quiet?” Ingrid asked. She looked up at the archways shading the walkway before her gaze drifted down to the shuttered stalls and alcoves. “It’s the middle of the day.”

“Nap time,” Claude told her simply. When her incredulous gaze snapped to him he shrugged. “What? Everyone likes their early afternoon naps, Ingrid.”

“So you’re telling me that in Almyra _everyone_ naps?”

“Well, not everyone,” he said. “We’re not napping.”

Ingrid stumbled away from him. 

“And it’s not out of laziness or indolence,” he explained, because somehow, improbably, he knew exactly what she was thinking and precisely which buttons to push. “It’s hot today, isn’t it? Better rest now while it’s too uncomfortable to do much else, right?”

She shook her head, and though sweat made her blouse stick uncomfortably to her skin she said, “It’s not that bad.”

“Oh of course not,” Claude said. “I’m suffering and I grew up here, so I can very much believe that my dear friend from eastern Faerghus thinks it’s _not that bad_.”

She glared at him - she couldn’t help it - and hoped he would write off her flush as an effect of the heat. “I’m just not used to taking naps,” she said. 

“And I wasn’t used to _not_ taking them.” He raised an eyebrow at her before his lips ticked into a smile, one that somehow, inconceivably, set her at ease. 

One familiar thing, amidst everything strange. 

“Also rest is good for you,” Claude added. “You rest your mind. Improves your efficiency. You should try taking a nap sometime.”

It did not, however, stop her from feeling just a little more foolish.

**Author's Note:**

> it's all fun and games until you remember you too come from a culture that values the early afternoon siesta but you cannot partake because capitalism


End file.
